BTA Episode 11: Shadows of the Heart
by J-Dub -Silver Enigma
Summary: Unity is the keyword in "unit", without the "y". The New 12 have yet to find this unity within the team. How does this decide their fate? Crisis Central continues. Multiple references are included... and the Bean Titans shall be tested yet again.  This is part 3 of Crisis Central.
1. Broken Pieces

**AN: I thank you all for your patience. It was well deserved, as we continue on with the Bean Titan Adventures.**

**Be reminded that the Titans are still in the beginning of Crisis Central. Oh yes, their troubles with Subspace was only an appetizer for what's to come in the near future. The question that this episode presents is this: Do the Bean Titans (primarily the New 12) have enough heart to survive what's coming to them?**

**This will be the last time I finalize my text definitions, so take it to heart now.**

**(- Bold or ALL CAPS = stressed or emphasized speech or clues.  
- **_Italic = thoughts, feelings, flashbacks/flash-forwards, psychic conversations, time lapses ("One minute later..."), and background music selections.  
- _Underlined = chapter titlings and new character introductions.  
- _**Bold + Italic = sound effects, chants or different tongues or languages.  
**_- This notation ( /\/\/\/\/\/\ ) can divide a battle into multiple parts or depict a short skip in time—ten minutes at the most. _**)**_

**Tune in, as their minds, bodies, spirits, and maybe even their destinies will be tested... right now.**

* * *

**~BTA Part 11: Shadows of the Heart~**

Chapter 1 — Broken Pieces

One week has passed since the Subspace crisis. It is evident that even though they defeated Tabuu, the New 12's biggest challenge is finding unity within the entire team. Three prime examples of this dysfunction were Sly's health, Mooch's absence (due to Sly's health), and the fight between Bongo and Ewey before they finally found a "truce".

Because of this problem, the Legendary 12 have decided to help them move one step closer to achieving unity by introducing the New 12 to a tactic that they, the Legendary 12 themselves, unintentionally found useful.

The scene shifts to the Danger Room, and both teams are in attendance.

"New 12..." Sweet began, "although you all have managed to pull your unit together again during the Subspace problem last week, the twelve of you underwent dangerous conditions and did not think through the situation as rationally as necessary."

Sly, on impulse, stepped forward. "How could you put the heat on us? We all went through hell... and I say that the Acolytes are still toying with us! All this crap we've been through, since Vanessa was a part of Titans X, the Acolytes have been driving us crazy!" he argued.

_"Sly...!"_ Mooch thought internally, now witnessing his best friend out of line.

"Even so," Mac responded, "that still doesn't explain why the twelve of you are having trouble working together."

"What about **you **twelve? If memory serves, you and Hippity had problems with each other." Sly continued to fuss.

"And they resolved them before Hippity fought Hashmal. Sly, please calm down." Canyon advised him.

"I still don't get why there are so many precepts that we have to uphold. If you ask me, they're what's keeping us from this "unity" you all are buggin' on! Why not step and help—!"

Sly was stopped when Felix suddenly approached him and smacked him hard with his right fist, knocking the fox to the ground. Sly was stunned, struggling to get up.

"The only one of the 24 of us here who's **buggin'** is you, Sly." Felix told him, tired of hearing his mouth. "The way I see it... just like me and the other ten of us, you have no business or right to get pissy and bark at anyone who's clearly in a superior position than you are. First of all, you don't backtalk to my dad like that... second, you're **supposed** to be a role model to everyone, whether it's anyone in the Legendary 12, the New 12, Titans X or Team Z. And most of all, you NEVER sass the Great Hero, no matter what he says. If you keep this up, unity won't mean a thing to us because you, the lieutenant, don't know your place or know how to act in it! Pull yourself together, so we don't have problems... trust me. If I have to hit you again for being out of line, you won't get up."

As he spoke, the rest of the New 12 were shocked that Felix took initiative and saved the team. Canyon and Fancy were even more frightened to see their son nearly put himself in harm's way for the greater good.

"Even though this doesn't put us in the right direction of things, Felix is absolutely right. Stop fighting, wise up, and do what's best for everyone." Mystic said.

Sweet put his hands on his waist and nodded in disappointment. Giving a sigh, he continues on with his point.

"As I was going to say, the Legendary 12 have been put through a similar situation where a few of our members were unable to assist the team. The Memory Room upstairs has an archive of the events that occurred during our time in Spira. View them when you can, but I will still tell you what happened when we were sucked into the other world. While Floppity was "lost" and Hippity and Fancy were held hostage by Wrinkle, the other nine of us found ourselves in trios, groups of three. As it turned out, we managed to survive because we were compatible with each other, even though a two of the three trios had assistance from the denizens of Spira. To the point at hand, we cannot just magically make you twelve unified as a well-balanced team. You must find it yourselves. Kuku, continue from there."

Lucy's cockatoo mother stepped forward. "We can give you all a start on becoming a team by splitting you up into simpler fractions—trios. We know that doing this contradicts "unity" in its meaning, but you can use these sub-teams to slowly build into the one and only New 12 that you all are."

Mooch assumed the Titans' Salute, in which he placed his arm horizontally in front of his chest. "We understand." he said, avoiding as much disagreement as possible for his unit.

"Dotty, announced the four trios." Sweet told her.

Dotty was in the control center of the Danger Room, with the microphone on. "Trio Alpha (A): Mooch, Slowpoke and Bongo."

Bongo jumped with happiness. "Dude, that's awesome. Us bros are already good with each other!"

"I know!" Slowpoke replied.

"Don't get your hopes up yet... we still have to commit to the whole team." Mooch reminded them.

"Trio Bravo (B): Sly, Christina and Megan." Dotty said next.

Sly did not say a word after Felix preached his case over the fox's shaken body. Christina only looked at her brother, hoping to not cause any more tension between them from previous conflicts (i.e. combat skills and Scaly).

_"This oughta be fun..."_ Megan thought sarcastically, knowing that Sly and Christina have not been the best of siblings to each other. Individually, they both could work with Megan, but being bound altogether would be interesting.

"Trio Charlie (C): Hoppity, Ewey and Lucy." Dotty called.

"Charlie's Angels!" Hoppity exclaimed, high-fiving both the lamb and the Canadian goose. It was a bit ironic because angels represent light, and all three of the girls had light element skills in their repertoires.

"And Trio Delta (D) is Ears, Felix and Bonnie." the dalmatian finished.

"All right everyone. Seeing as though nothing is happening right now, I suggest the twelve of you get accustomed to being in your trios, just in case you run into a situation where you have to split up. Meeting adjourned." Sweet spoke, as the Legendary 12 took their leave.

_One minute later..._

"All right, let's get started! Hah!" Christina shouted, attempting to deliver a flying kick to Sly.

Unlikely of Sly, he took the hit and flew a few feet backwards before hitting the ground. He could have easily countered that if he wanted to.

"Good shot..." Megan murmured.

Christina knew that something was off, so she suddenly fell to her knees and dropped her head in sadness.

"What's wrong?" Bonnie asked.

"This isn't Sly..." Christina claimed, while her voice started to break.

"How does she know that?" Bongo questioned, starting to move toward her.

Hoppity barred him. "She's right. He isn't even here with us." she said, after retracing current events with her psychic ability.

Sly suddenly poofed in white smoke, telling the rest that it was really a Shadow Clone.

Christina teared lightly. "What's the matter with my brother? He's in a rut, he doesn't think through things... he doesn't even love his own sister..."

Slowpoke embraced her. "He just needs some time to himself. After that talk Felix gave him, I'm sure he knows about how wrong he was for being disrespectful. It's not just because he doesn't love you..."

"I want that to change for once in my life!" Christina outbursted, running out of the Danger Room and soon, out of the Tower for some fresh air herself.

Megan, showing almost no disappointment, goes up to the control center and sit's in Dotty's chair.

"You're not going after either of them?" Ewey asked.

Megan turned the mic on. "Why should I? I'm teamed with the two people who are the weakest links in the New 12. Don't be surprised to hear me say that about my husband and sister-in-law. Sly's been out of line, and Christina's suffering from a part of his pain. I shouldn't have to give them a reason to come back to the team if they insist on holding on to themselves. They need to get that straightened out, and fast. I'm not leaving this spot until one of them comes back, so that's that. The nine of you can do your thing... I'll be with you when Trio B becomes a unit."

"You're not worried, Mooch?" Slowpoke asked, knowing that Sly was his best friend.

"I agree with Megan." Mooch said. "Nothing that anyone has ever said to Sly made any bit of difference to him. Ever since his problems started with Scaly, he hasn't exactly been 100% Sly. He needs to find what's missing, without help from anyone else. Whatever it is, he needs to keep it close to him and never let it go for the sake of the team."

Felix nodded. "Right now, nothing's getting accomplished here."

"Right..." Mooch uttered, unsheathing his zanpakutō and preparing to release it's shikai form. "Transcend, Zen no Kyoudoutai. Come on, bros."

The nine Titans inside the Danger Chamber began a training session. Trio Bravo was left out.

**/-/**

The reference list will be shown just like in BTA Part 10, at the top of the page. I will list the references from this chapter and then reveal the new ones in the chapters to come... starting in Chapter 2.

Go ahead and review if the need arises.


	2. Light?

**AN: References used: Teen Titans, Marvel/X-Men, Bleach, Final Fantasy (I: Dawn of Souls, VII, X, XII, and XIII), Call of Duty, and Naruto. In this chapter: Pokémon, Nintendo, and 300 (imitation).**

Chapter 2 — Light?

Christina found herself running all the way to the bridge that connected Galveston to the Texas mainland. She felt that she needed to be far away from Sly, knowing that she would only be his victim. Various people around her saw that she was distraught, and even they saw what most of the other Titans saw in her. Even in solitude, Christina was in chains, and her mock-goth attire doesn't change a thing.

"Hey... you look sad. What's the matter?" spoke a heavy male voice behind her.

Christina did not turn around. "My brother... he's just a sad case now."

"A sad case?"

"Like... he's supposed to be a leader, but he's always complaining to people he should be loving and respecting. He doesn't talk to my mom and dad all that much, but what's worse is that he doesn't even care for his own sister. It's been like that since I was born. I could just die right now." she pleaded without a care in the world.

"Ah, I see. Well..." the man began, grabbing her shoulder to turn her around. He had pale, yet dark skin, compressed dark orange hair, and fierce golden eyes, all while wearing the white robes of an Acolyte. "That can be arranged."

Christina saw immediately that he was evil. He was about to attack with what he called his Warlock Punch—dark energy generated madly into his fist and it had to go somewhere, by force. By pure luck, Christina avoided the powerful fist by bending her back Matrix-style.

_"That was close..."_ she told herself.

"Humph." the man uttered, raising his leg up to try and drop it on her with great force.

She used Flash Step to avoid his second attack, which broke a small portion of the entire bridge. She appeared over the water below and used a technique that allowed her to float or stand in midair. Mooch explained how to do this to most of the Titans, since he was practically a Soul Reaper; he said that it required using the spirit to float or stand on air, rather than personal energy, which would be more strenuous on the body.

"Don't count yourself lucky..." spoke another voice behind her. It was another Acolyte, pointing at her with a large gray finger. "Hyper Beam." he finished, unleashing the powerful beam of energy from his finger at her.

Christina immediately warped again, back on the bridge. "Two Acolytes?" she exclaimed.

"WRONG AGAIN!" yelled yet another presence, falling down toward her from above and tossing his Acolyte robes aside, revealing the spiked green shell on his back, aimed at her.

"This isn't my day...!" Christina murmured, tossing a Daze Bomb at the third Acolyte, stopping him in his tracks.

While he was halted, Christina ran about twenty yards away from them all, before the third Acolyte dropped on the bridge to finish his attack, which destroyed a fifth of the entire bridge.

_"Damn... I'm boned."_ she assumed, knowing that fighting even one Acolyte is hard enough.

"Right you are." replied the second Acolyte.

Christina was startled. "Please don't tell me you're psychic..."

"I couldn't have heard you otherwise."

"Who are you three?"

The first Acolyte spoke. "Ganondorf, 8th seat of the Acolytes."

The second removed his hood. "Mewtwo, 7th seat."

The third stomped forward, to attack Christina when he got close. "King Koopa Bowser, 9th place in the Acolytes!"

He thrusted his claw on the air in front of him, releasing three energy blades. Christina avoided two of them, but the last one cut into her shoulder, making her unable to use her right arm in the fight. While she was hurt, Mewtwo quickly charged in and struck her stomach with Mega Punch, following with Tail Whip to the back of her head, knocking her down, nearly unconscious.

_"I can't get up... why did three high-ranked Acolytes have to come and try to kill me?"_ she thought, trying not to close her eyes and fade, while taking staggered breaths.

Ganondorf picked her up completely by her throat and put her over the edge of the bridge.

"Ganon said that it could be arranged." Mewtwo reminded her.

"You really should be thanking me..." Ganondorf said, still grasping her. "I'm doing you a favor here. Sly continuously shows this resentment towards you... so when I go through with this, you won't have to deal with such a harsh brother anymore. So, I will only say this once..."

He paused, to throw her straight into the air.

"THIS... IS... YOUR GRAVE!" he shouted, preparing to kick her into the Gulf's waters below with a direct thrust kick.

"RASENOVA!" shouted Sly from afar, firing his signature chakra blast from a Rasengan, hitting all three Acolytes. Immediately after firing it, Sly retrieved his sister and placed her safely on the ground.

"S...Sly..." she managed to say.

"Christina, I'm saying this because I don't want you to die... just rest. I have this covered." he told her.

"And just how do you plan on proving that?" Bowser interrogated.

Sly smirked. "Remember the Aeons that you guys said were obsolete?"

"That's **exactly** what they are. That's why we brought the espers." Ganondorf said.

"Right... thanks for the gifts, guys."

Mewtwo lowered his eyes in skepticism. "What do you mean?"

"The thirteen original espers you brought are now in the possession of the Legendary 12 and Ears, who has Famfrit with him."

"What's your point?" Bowser questioned, as he, Ganondorf and Mewtwo charged forward.

"You forgot a few." Sly uttered, before a sudden uprising of rock appeared to bar the Acolytes from Sly and Christina.

"What's this? The powers I'm sensing... six of them, and they're all almost off the charts!" Mewtwo exclaimed.

"And three of them are the same three that Psychomech killed. So listen closely to these introductions. Buried from deep within... Titan. Beckoned from the rampaging storm... Tiamat. The legendary swordsman himself... Gilgamesh."

A tall male figure made almost entirely of earth, a six-headed dragon, and a warrior able to hold six swords appeared as Sly called them out.

"You should recognize the last three." Sly continued. "From her icy throne... Shiva. From the depths of the fiery hell... Ifrit! And let's not forget the wyrm that flies the midnight sky with formidable force... Bahamut."

On his words, a pale-skinned woman with light blue hair, an intimidating hell-beast with long horns, and a mighty midnight blue dragon presented themselves to the Acolytes. Christina could not believe what she heard; Shiva, Ifrit and Bahamut have returned... but as espers. How is that possible?

"This can't be..." Ganondorf muttered.

"Sic 'em." Sly commanded the espers.

Before any of them budged, the three Acolytes suddenly retreated to bring the news to Slade, their leader. At the same time, the rest of the New 12 showed up on the scene.

Hoppity traced current events. "Guys... Sly and the six of them made three Acolytes leave. Christina is hurt bad too." she reported.

Slowpoke and Ewey ran to tend to her, running past the six espers.

"Wait a minute..." Bonnie said, looking at three of the espers. "There's no way."

"Believe it, Bonnie. Though their appearances are a little different, Shiva, Ifrit and Bahamut are back." Sly said.

"Who're the other three?" Felix asked.

"He's—"

Sly was stopped by the swordsman.

"No, no. Allow me. I am the mightiest swordsman in all of Ivalice. It is I, GILGAMESH! I have acquired the 'blade of legend', scoured the furthest marches east and west! My travels have brought me here, to you. Inferior weapons and weak spells cannot break any of my blades. I am an elite warrior above all others... with Enkidu, my canine companion!"

A coyote whose fur was painted in Gilgamesh's colors appeared beside its master.

"Wow... so you guys can speak to us?" Lucy inquired.

"All of us can." Titan replied.

"We heard that you Bean Titans were having a spot of trouble, and that you already have the 13 originals with you." Tiamat explained.

Shiva walked up to Ears, giving him cold chills since she was the ice empress. She grabbed the crest on his necklace. "As I thought. This is indeed Famfrit's summoning crest. This rabbit is lucky." she said.

"And that's why 11 of us feel bad. Ears gets a summon and the rest of us just have our gut feelings or intuitions." Bongo complained.

Sly sighed. "That's the other reason why I brought them here. This time, the espers will choose who they want to serve. I have their six summon crests, and they will automatically fly to the Titans of their choosing, as necklaces like Ears's."

Sly placed the crests down, and the six espers disappeared as they approached them. Once they were gone, the crests levitated themselves in midair, spinning rapidly at a certain height before shooting out to the Bean Titans of their choosing. Hoppity got the white crest shaped like an icicle, which meant Shiva chose her. Sly received Bahamut's deep blue diamond-shaped crest. Bongo got Ifrit's red flame crest. Tiamat chose Felix, who found the golden ring-shaped crest. Titan's mountain-marked brown crest was found on Slowpoke's new necklace. Finally, Gilgamesh joined Mooch and gave him the X-shaped silver crest.

"So, the rest of us have to get our own espers?" Ewey presumed, as she, Lucy, Bonnie, Christina and Megan did not get one.

"Apparently so." Mooch said. "Let's all get back home. We'll train up tomorrow."

* * *

Getting back to the Home Base, the New 12 decided to rest for the remainder of the day.

Christina was placed in the Bio-Regen Pod in the Healing Chamber until 9:00 PM. She only had a cut shoulder, and that did not take long to fix. Once that was done, she went back to her room.

At 10:30, there was a knock on her door.

The skunk looked at the time. "My Pokie's at the door!" she quietly squealed, using Slowpoke's play name. She opened the door, only to see her brother.

"Hey." he greeted his sister out of weirdness.

"Hey." she replied back, not knowing what to expect from Sly.

"Got a minute?" he asked.

She let him in, with a bit of reluctance. "What is it?"

"Listen. If you think my attitude is from whatever Scaly did... it's not. I had to take some time to myself to get him off of my mind—to give up chasing after him. And..."

"And...?" she repeated after him.

"First off, the New 12 couldn't be the New 12 without you... and I don't think I would like being an only child."

"Well, I'm not dead..." she told him, before she was suddenly embraced by her brother, witnessing this for the first time with her own eyes.

"I'm sorry, okay? I'm sorry for 19 years of mistreating you. I'm just afraid of seeing you disappear because of me."

Christina was awestruck by hearing him, as she could only close her eyes and hug him back. "Sly... where's this coming from?" she asked warm-heartedly.

"I've been missing some light in my life. I have mom's, dad's, my friends', my wife's... I'm only missing my own sister. We need to take care of each other, and not break each other down." Sly said, now sounding a bit emotional about this.

_"Finally..."_ the skunk thought, hugging him tighter to take in the moment. Of course, she would start sapping up.

The fox heard her sniffles. "Go ahead and let it out. You're already on my shoulder." Sly told her, patting her back.

**/-/**

Sly has found his lost light. Things will most likely be better for him now.

However, trouble is still on the rise for the Bean Titans. No one is safe in Crisis Central.

Stay tuned.


	3. Deciding Destiny

**AN: References used: Teen Titans, Marvel/X-Men, Bleach, Final Fantasy (I: Dawn of Souls, VII, X, XII, and XIII), Call of Duty, Naruto, Pokémon, Nintendo, and 300 (imitation). In this chapter: Dragonball Z, Johnny Test (quote) and Kingdom Hearts (which will be our main focus reference).**

**I should have put this in Chapter 1 but... I do not own any of the countless entities from any of the ideas listed above and those to be listed in the future. I only (distantly) own the Beanie Babies used in this grand production, here at home.**

Chapter 3 — Deciding Destiny

_The next morning, at 9:00 AM..._

_***knock, knock***_ "Hey Christi? Rise and shine..." called Slowpoke from her closed door.

Sly was awakened by the sounds of the knocks. "Huh...?" he uttered quietly, noticing that he had slept in his sister's room on her resting chair. Christina was in her bed, so he assumed that he dozed off while they were in their reunion-like moment last night, and she put him down on the chair.

He stood up to exit her room, and then saw Slowpoke as he opened the door.

"Sly? What were you doing in your sister's room?" the sloth asked.

"We had a little talk." he answered.

Slowpoke crossed his arms. "About what?"

"About the reason why I've been such an asshole."

Slowpoke raised one of his eyebrows. "Really?"

"Well that... and a little bit of sibling bonding."

"Bonding. That's it?"

"Why are you asking so many questions? Come on man... it's not like I flirted with my own sister."

"I know... but it's just weird to find you sleeping in her room."

Sly sighed. "Okay. I did admit to her that I've been a jerk to her for a long time. I apologized and said that I would look after her more and be more of a brother to her like everyone's been telling me for so long. I'm serious this time." Sly explained. "And if you don't believe me, you and everyone else can ask her yourselves."

The fox walked off after saying that. To Slowpoke, it seemed too good to believe, but Sly is known for meaning what he says. He moved to the bedside.

"Christi... wake up." Slowpoke called, nudging her gently.

The purple-haired skunk slowly opened her eyes and saw the image of her boyfriend. "Where were you last night?" she asked, still trying to wake up.

"My dad needed to talk with my trio basically about teamwork, even though we knew about what it meant already."

"Oh."

Slowpoke sat on the edge of the bed as Christina leaned on her back after sitting up. "Sly was in here... and he said that you two were bonding. What's that about?" he asked.

Christina gave a light smile. "It means I finally have my brother, and he cares."

Slowpoke shrugged. "Well, that's good. What do you expect now?"

"Nothing really. All I want is to hear him say that he loves me as his sister. He hasn't said it yet, but I want to hear it with my own ears one day."

"So the New 12 is back." said Megan, who was leaning against Christina's doorway with one of her feet on it, while crossing her arms with her eyes closed.

"Megan... how long were you there?" Slowpoke questioned, a bit startled at hearing her voice.

"Long enough. It sounds to me like Sly was the only thing keeping the New 12 from growing because his old attitude affected every one of us. Christina, even though this may sound a bit off, your incident with the three Acolytes yesterday actually opened Sly's eyes. Your near-death experience made Sly see that he needed you alive and well not just for the sake of the team, but for the sake of his family as well. Sly has this "circle of light" as his spirit, and in that circle is all the people that have meaning to him. The people who are near the core of that circle are the people that give him the most light and love in his spirit. That's Mooch, Hippie, me, his parents... and now you, Christina."

Christina was awestruck. "How do you know all of this?"

"I'm his wife; I'm supposed to know." answered Megan. "Sly has had this missing light at the very center of his being for a long time—at the center of his circle. He might not fully realize it yet, but you are that missing light. Sly found your light, and he won't let it go. I promise you that. And that proves what I said before: the New 12 is back."

Slowpoke lowered his eyebrows and gave Megan a dull look. "Megan... did you just have tea again?"

She sighed. "Yes... my morning green tea always soothes me, and sometimes makes me speak in a proper way. Relax—it wears off in thirty minutes."

"To no offense, I think Ewey could use some of that sometimes." Christina joked, implying that Ewey can be a bit brash sometimes with a couple of Bean Titans.

"I suppose so. Anyways, the two of you might wanna get ready for today. Mooch said that our Trio Training starts at ten."

"Ah crap..." Slowpoke uttered.

"What? You're not ready?" Megan inquired.

"No. Banana-for-brains needs to wake up; he sleeps more than Mooch and I."

"Well, go flip his bed over and get him in gear." Megan told him, as he ran out of Christina's room. "You ready, Christina?"

"Yeah, let's go."

* * *

_10:00 AM..._

"All right, guys. We'll have to get started with our training now. We missed out on a lot yesterday." Mooch said to the New 12.

"Yeah. Let's get going before somethin' else happens." Bongo stated.

The Tower's alarm system went off.

Felix face-palmed. "Are you serious?" he uttered.

"Thanks again, universe—for jinxing me again!" Bongo complained.

Sweet soon was on the PA System. "Attention all Bean Titans: meet in the Theatre downstairs for the briefing, ASAP."

At that order, every Bean Titan assembled in the Theatre down on the first floor of the Home Base. The Legendary 12 took their positions on the dais.

"Titans, as you should know from the alarm, trouble is afoot." Sweet stated. "Go ahead and give them the details, Dotty."

"Wrinkle has been detected inside of Galveston, causing havoc and terrorizing innocent people as usual. But oddly, he's headed for the bridge that was partially fractured yesterday." she explained.

"Well, this oughta be no problem. All we have to do trample on him before he gets away." Hippie openly suggested.

"Unfortunately, we can't take that risk, son." Hippity replied.

"Right. The way he's attacking the city near us, and going in the opposite direction of this Tower—it's just begging to provoke us into another trap." Sweet presumed, thinking critically. "If all of us go in full force, he may have the rest of his Syndicate or most of the Acolytes at his call, just to ambush our whole team. As another negative, if we all leave this station, the Home Base might be destroyed without us ever expecting it, which would throw our system out of balance. We can't have either one of those things happen."

"So what do we do?" asked Felix, knowing that a plan was about to be set.

Sweet paused for a second. "New 12, confront Wrinkle yourselves. If he has something terrible up his sleeves and you can't resolve it, get out of there. Myself and the rest of the Legendary 12 will be on standby here at the Home Base. The rest of you will have to divide into 12 squads and protect one of our bases around Earth. These attacks on every Titans Tower have been getting quite repetitive. Make sure you have at least one person that's able with the light element in your squads... I have a feeling darkness is going to spread again. When you're ready, you may take action."

Soon enough, every other Bean Titan except for the Legendary 12 exited the Home Base.

"What's wrong, Sweet?" Mac asked, seeing him look off to the side.

"I need to see the current videos of Sly in the Memory Room." Sweet requested.

"How current?" Fancy asked.

"As of yesterday, to right now. If something hasn't changed, the New 12 are doomed."

* * *

_At the bridge..._

"Yes... yes... the stage is set." Wrinkle murmured, looking at the broken portion of the bridge. He dropped a black vase—decorated with purple jewels—into the water beneath the broken bridge space that Bowser created yesterday.

Right after he did that, the New 12 showed up.

"Wrinkle." Mooch muttered.

"Titans. Of course... you've come to ruin my plans, have you?"

"Should you even have to guess?" Hoppity questioned.

"In this case, yes."

"What do you mean?" Sly interrogated.

"I really don't have anything planned to destroy the Bean Titans, at the moment. Right now, I'm just following orders." Wrinkle told them.

"From the Acolytes again?" Ears presumed.

"You could say that."

"What is it, you dipwad?" Ewey raised her voice, trying to know exactly what he was planning.

"Sorry to tell you, but this plan is supposed to be anonymous. And it starts... now. Prepare yourselves... to be quizzed!"

The New 12 were confused, expecting only conflict with Wrinkle.

"Say... WHAT?" Christina sneered.

"You heard me. You don't have to respond immediately; take your time with these questions. They will decide your journey ahead... trust me, it's damn accurate."

"This is weird." Bongo uttered.

"With power, comes strength. That strength can be your light. And if that light is strong enough, nothing will be impossible for you. What is most important to you: being the best, friendship or your precious possessions?"

"Are you giving us a lesson, or trying to make us bored?" Felix inquired.

"Friendship." Hoppity answered for the team.

"Your friends are a part of your light, is that right?"

"Yes."

"Hops, what're you doing?" Slowpoke exclaimed.

_"Keep it quiet..."_ she advised the team telepathically. _"Most of us are thinking of the best answers, so we'll be in good shape if no one else changes their mind. I think this test really is a big deal, so keep your minds focused and let me answer."_

"All right." Mooch responded quietly. "What's next, Wrinkle?"

"Very well. What do you want out of life: to see the rarest sights, to broaden your horizons, or to be strong?" he asked.

Hoppity shifted her eyes to read the minds of her allies and come up with the best overall decision. "To broaden our horizons." she replied.

"Ah, I see." Wrinkle murmured.

_"This is ridiculous..."_ Bongo muttered.

_"Focus!" _Hoppity urged the monkey.

"Now the last question. What are you afraid of: growing old, being different, or indecisiveness?" Wrinkle concluded.

"Indecisiveness." Hoppity answered immediately.

"So... the twelve of you strive to value friendship, seek to broaden your horizons, and don't desire to be indecisive. Your journey begins at noon. Keep your values, your minds, and most of all, your light precious to you... so you can survive. Your destiny has only begun." Wrinkle said, before he jumped back to fall into the space where he dropped the black vase.

"What...? I didn't expect that." Hoppity spoke, startled by what Wrinkle just did.

"What the hell is going on?" Megan questioned, looking at her watch... and it was noon.

Suddenly, the skies let out a massive flash of light, and when it vanished, the entire atmosphere turned purple. Along with the flash, the waters below them burst upward and then reformed as a wall of twisters that was really a thirty-mile radius of twisters, surrounding all of Galveston and Titans Tower, which was only a few miles from the Gulf Coast. In midair, there was an ominous dark ball hovering over Galveston, releasing five small humanoid shadows on the southern side of the bridge.

Lucy took a closer look with her Byakugan. "Guys, we have trouble." she told them.

"Well, let's do something about it. Titans, go!" Mooch commanded, as they twelve of them quickly moved to where the five shadows were dropped.

When they got to the end of the bridge, the dark figures revealed themselves. They were short, with glowing yellow eyes and ant-like antennae.

"What in the world are they?" Bonnie asked.

"Whatever they are, they look weak to me." Bongo assumed.

"Too weak..." Mooch said, unsheathing Zen no Kyoudoutai and whipping a Sword Slash Wave to kill all five of them on the spot. "As I thought."

Just as Mooch started to turn away from his fallen foes, ten moving two-dimensional figures moved on the ground and then resurfaced as the same fiends that he defeated. _(Music begins: "Attack on the Beat"— Bleach.)_

"They revived... and duplicated?" Bonnie analyzed, shuddering between her words.

"This ain't good. We gotta figure out how to prevent them from doing that." Sly said.

"Right. New 12, let's go!" Mooch announced, holding his zanpakutō to the sky. For reasons unknown, the blade exited the gibbon's hand and zoomed into the ball of darkness above.

"Ahh! There it goes again, with a mind of its own." Bongo said, watching its path.

"Bongo, help me out. Let's see if these things can handle the heat." Megan said, preparing her Phoenix Flower Jutsu.

"Gotcha covered! Flame Whip!" he shouted just as Megan announced her Jutsu.

The ten fiends were not in sight after the fires blazed. That was, until they decided to resurface and double their numbers yet again.

"Damn... fire's not gonna work." Megan analyzed.

One of the Shadows creeped up behind the squirrel to ambush her.

"Oh no you don't... Tornami Twister!" Ears yelled, using the power of the Orb of Tornami with his Tsunami Strike to terminate the Shadow inside his aquatic pod.

The result was the same.

"Water doesn't work either... what's with these guys?" Ears wanted to know.

"Aerospark!" Bonnie cried, throwing a swift disc of electricity at one of them. "Try freezing them, Ears... lightning isn't doing much anything to these guys."

"All right. Orb of Tornami, ICE!" he yelled, releasing a stream of ice from the orb and freezing four Shadows. They did not move, and in a few seconds, the ice broke them. "Ha! They aren't coming back from that!"

To his dismay, that is exactly what they did.

"WHAT THE FUCK?" he blurted aloud.

/\/\/\/\/\/\/\/\

It seemed that there was no end to these Shadows. After three minutes, there were now 700 of them. It did not seem to matter what the New 12 threw at them, they could not stop their revivals and multiplications.

"Why don't they just die already?" Felix whined.

"These little dark midgets are getting on my nerves!" Lucy exclaimed.

Ewey's mind sparked. "Dark midgets... wait a second, guys! We've been going at this all wrong!"

"How can you say that?" Slowpoke asked.

"Watch." Ewey summoned her Heavenbow and fired two of her blue Scattershot light arrows. After firing them, the arrows split into ten equally powerful arrows and killed ten of the Shadows. This time, the ten that she got rid of did not come back to life.

"Oh wow." Ears muttered, face-palming himself. "We're sitting here going bat-shit crazy, and we forgot that light and darkness were opposed to each other."

"I didn't forget. This would've been over if my sword didn't fly away from me." Mooch said.

Realizing their weakness, the Shadows suddenly tripled their numbers—2,070 to be exact. This shocked the New 12.

_"Whoa... didn't see that coming."_ Bonnie thought, dropping her jaw and widening her eyes.

The Shadows then surrounded the New 12, in an effort to close in and take them down.

"We're boned." uttered Christina, assuming the worst.

"What...? This isn't right." Hoppity murmured, sensing a familiar power.

"What isn't?" Sly asked.

_(Music change: "Run!"— Final Fantasy X.)_

In an instant, Sweet came to the aid of the New 12 via Flash Step. "This isn't. Web Fortress!" he yelled, pounding the ground to cause a dome of webs to rise and enclose himself and the New 12 as a shield from the Shadows.

"What?" Sly whispered, overwhelmed to see Sweet coming to save the New 12 from near doom.

"Dad? What are you doing here?" Mooch asked.

"Telling you what to do. I know, I shouldn't be including myself in any way with your courses of action, but this will have to be an exception. Wrinkle is inside that dark mass above us; Dotty "decoded" it and found that it was another dark realm. It's not the same as Subspace, but these shadows hail from it, and they are more vicious there than here. They're called Heartless—rampant entities living with no hearts, therefore, no light within themselves. Take caution with them, but **at all costs**, find and stop Wrinkle."

"What's gonna happen here?" Slowpoke asked.

"Leave this to the Legendary 12. The rest of the Titans were evacuated to the Moon Base because these Heartless are growing by the second, and gathering closer and closer to the Home Base. They seem to be drawn to those with the strongest hearts, and that would be us heroes. Do what you need to do to stop Wrinkle; we'll handle things here."

The New 12 understood.

"Wait!" Bonnie called. "Their weakness... it's—"

She was interrupted when the Web Fortress began to break.

"I'm sorry, Bonnie. There's no time now. We'll figure it out. Go!" Sweet said, assuming his Legendary power and bursting with heavy resistance into the army of Shadows.

"All right, New 12. Now's a good time to use that shinigami jump I taught you guys to get inside the realm. Let's go!" stated Mooch.

Using their spirits instead of energy, the twelve of them super-jumped into the realm that Wrinkle escaped into. Soon, the New 12 will find out if that quiz really was that accurate.

**/-/**

What will this new threat bring upon our heroes?

Find out soon.

Just so you know, Bonnie said the Johnny Test quote: "Didn't see that coming."


	4. The Pact

**AN: References used: Teen Titans, Marvel/X-Men, Kingdom Hearts (our focus), Bleach, Final Fantasy (I: Dawn of Souls, VII, X, XII, and XIII), Call of Duty, Naruto, Pokémon, Nintendo, 300, Dragonball Z, and Johnny Test. In this chapter: nothing new.**

Chapter 4 — The Pact

Without warning, the New 12 literally crash land on the floor of a small cave. They find themselves in a pile.

"(_muffled_) Ow, my face!" exclaimed Bongo, who was indeed planted into the ground, while everyone else was on top of him.

"That sucked." Ears stated, as the group got out of their pile one by one.

"...My butt hurts." Hoppity openly mentioned.

Slowpoke squinted. "That's just wrong, knowing that you have some extra cushion back there."

"I'm serious." she replied.

Ears's eyebrows jumped. "Time to see Dr. Briggs, Hops. C'mon..." he jested, sitting down.

Hoppity played along, laying on his lap horizontally, on her stomach.

"They do know that we don't have time for this, right?" Felix questioned, wanting to stick to the mission.

"I like your dedication, Felix. But we can't exactly take a course of action without realizing where we are." Mooch said.

"What do you mean?"

"It's one thing to know where we are, but it's another thing to explain where we are. This... will have to take a LOT of explaining." Mooch finished, turning the team's eyes to what is outside of the cave. There appeared to be an endless lavender sea with only a few small floating rocks distantly scattered in view. The skies were of the same color as the sea, but there were a few dark "meteors" (much like the one that the New 12 entered) falling down constantly in random places. At the end of the horizon, there was a spiraling vortex that looked like another portal within the realm.

"I have no idea what to say about this place." Ewey murmured, sounding as if she could not fathom a place like this.

"I might have an idea." Bonnie began. "Those things that we fought before jumping in here... Sweet called them the Heartless, right? He said that they have no hearts within them, but yet, they exist. I think it's more like this... the Heartless have no trace of light in them, so they exist and manifest themselves through darkness. Since there is so many of them, they must've created this world so they could live unlimitedly. The reason why we're here is similar to this. We all have this strong light inside of our hearts, but at the same time, there is a small amount of darkness there as well. Without that darkness in us, we couldn't exist in this place... which would also explain the Heartless's mission. They attack us because they want to take the light in our hearts and leave the darkness, so our hearts would eventually be swamped in darkness. And then, once that last trace of light is gone, we'll be just what they want us to be: Heartless. To us, this has to be the End of the World."

_"Felix and Bonnie do it again."_ Ears thought, absolutely amazed to see the youngest two New 12 members stepping up to the plate.

"I don't even know if the title of this place even makes sense... but how do you do that?" Christina exclaimed at Bonnie. "For one minute, you're this happy-go-lucky 12-year-old little canine girl, who occasionally plays with a feline boy as your playmate... then you turn into a fucking genius! How does that work? Are you smarter than your mom?"

"I'm just naturally smart. I don't just pick and choose the time when I want to be. That's my personality." Bonnie told her.

"And that's why I love her." Felix said.

"Including the reason where you told yourself that I was a sexy little b—"

"That too..." Felix said, stopping her mouth so she would not say the last word.

"Ha ha... dog pun." Bongo snickered, knowing what the last word was.

"All right. I think I have the plan now, so if everyone is through with—" Mooch halted when he saw what Ears was doing. "Ears, are you patting her ass?"

Ears stopped and lowered his jaw a bit. "That's how she likes it." he told the team.

"O—kay... Hoppity, can you see any clear path ahead of us?" Mooch asked.

Ears had already stopped using her hips as bongos, so she got up and looked ahead for any hidden paths via "psychic sight". "The path isn't really that hard to follow." she started off saying. "The rocks in the distance look a little like arrows, pointing in the direction the road is in. Everywhere else is a bottomless drop."

"So we need to be careful moving around here." Sly assumed.

"Right. Remember guys, we're here to find Wrinkle and bring him down." Mooch reminded his team, as they went off in the path that Hoppity described.

"I just don't get how Wrinkle could've figured this place out." Lucy uttered.

"He has the Acolytes at his side... that explains enough." Megan responded.

/\/\/\/\/\/\

The New 12 walked on the near invisible sea, traveling from rock to rock to lead them in the right direction. They were also avoiding the dark spheres that were falling down from the sky. Soon, they managed to make it to the vortex.

"It looks like a galaxy." Bonnie stated.

"It's probably just a portal to another part of this place." Ears replied.

"Yeah, but what's on the other side?" Ewey questioned.

Slowpoke looked up in worry. "Um, let's worry about that after we do something about **that**!" he exclaimed, pointing at the giant dark sphere above them—it was within collision distance.

When it fell on the team, not a soul was harmed. However, the worst was yet to come, as they found themselves in an even darker void than the lavender sea they were originally in.

"What the hell?" uttered Christina, laying on the floor of darkness below her.

"Christina, behind you!" Megan called.

A huge, dark beast was in the sights of the skunk, when she turned around. It had two horns protruding from the sides of its mouth, which extended and curved over its head, where its third supercharged horn was. It also had a black and red emblem on the core of its torso that looked a little like a heart. It was known simply as a Behemoth. It tried to pounce on Christina.

"AAH!" Christina yelled, seeing it jump toward her. She did not want to watch.

Slowpoke quickly stepped in and stopped the downward drop of the Behemoth instantly by catching it with his super-strength. "Jeez... you're heavy. Ewey, hit it!" he said.

"Gotcha covered." the lamb responded, firing a Force Arrow from her Heavenbow to push the Behemoth back a good distance.

"It doesn't seem to be hurt at all from that." Lucy sensed.

"It's charging at us again..." Christina warned the group.

"New 12, evasive action!" Mooch commanded.

The team split up in different directions. The Behemoth chased Ewey down.

"Why is it coming for me?" Ewey wanted to know, continuously firing light arrows at its face.

Bonnie was processing the thoughts in her head. _"It's after her... light!_ Ewey, put your Heavenbow away!" Bonnie told her.

"What?" she exclaimed.

"That's a Heartless! It's drawn to light!"

"I thought these things were weak to light!"

"Yeah, light **attacks**. I'm talking about hidden light—you know, within your weapon, which has more light in it than in your heart alone. Plus, I don't think you'd want every Heartless in this place to be after you any more than they are now. So send the Heavenbow back."

Ewey winced. "Fine..." she whispered, tossing her weapon upward, which transformed into a bolt of light and disappeared. She understood Bonnie's point, though.

The Behemoth still ran after the lamb.

"Lead him to me, Ewey." Mooch said, in his Kamehameha charging stance.

"Okay."

"Lucy, do you still have any more Byakugan sight in you? If you do, try and find a weak point on that thing."

"Let's see..." she spoke, using enough energy needed to utilize her heightened perception. "Wow... there's a heap load of power stored in the horn on its head."

"Bros, did you hear that? Let's do this." Mooch said.

Slowpoke and Bongo stood beside him and assumed the same stance.

"Ka... me... ha... me... HA!" all three of them shouted, using their Kamehameha Trio attack to wipe out the Behemoth once Ewey was out of the way.

"That'll work." Sly claimed, smiling in victory.

Suddenly, about 25 small Heartless showed up.

"Those guys again..." Ears said.

"No, they're different. They're a bit taller than the other ones, and they have more shape to their bodies than the round ones do." Megan analyzed, seeing that their foes were clearly augmented than the Shadows were. They were Neoshadows.

"What happened to the other ones then?" asked Bongo.

Hoppity scouted the whole area with her psychic ability. "None of them are here... and they're jumping out into our world at we speak!"

Mooch looked back to the spiral, which had now disappeared. _"Damn... that means more trouble for the Legendary 12. Then that means these Heartless must have some secret way of getting into our world."_ he thought.

Four wormholes appeared behind the Neoshadows, each appearing to go to different areas of the realm they were in.

"Aw, what now?" Ewey whined.

"We prove ourselves." Sly responded, after Hoppity and Lucy disposed of the Neoshadows with their light attacks.

"What do you mean?" Felix asked.

"Before I explain, you'll have to trust me—I know where I'm going with this. Now, if everyone expects us to be so good and united as a team, we should start a pact right here and now: to accomplish what no one else in the Titans can accomplish."

"What are you saying, Sly?" Mooch inquired.

"We do the impossible: go into those portals in our trios, which we haven't really got to fine-tune yet. It's going to be intense, as our enemies, except Wrinkle, are weak to light only. Our goal right now is to survive and solve this problem the way we Titans should. If everyone wants to test us, we'll pass... with flying colors."

Hearing his words, everyone else in the New 12 knew that it was official—Sly was back.

"Raise 'em high, New 12." Mooch said, telling everyone to raise one of their fists to the sky.

After a couple of seconds, the unit's traditional "oath" was set.

"For everyone back home, and for the unity of our team... let's divide and conquer, guys. New 12 Titans, go!" Mooch announced.

Immediately after, the twelve of them formed their four trios and entered the wormholes in them.

**/-/**

With their new pact set in stone, will the New 12 really accomplish their effort to make the impossible possible?

We will soon find out.


	5. Triple Threats

**AN: References used: Teen Titans, Marvel/X-Men, Kingdom Hearts (our focus), Bleach, Final Fantasy (I: Dawn of Souls, VII, X, XII, and XIII), Call of Duty, Naruto, Pokémon, Nintendo, 300, Dragonball Z, and Johnny Test. In this chapter: Fantasia and Hercules.**

Chapter 5 — Triple Threats

_-Trio Alpha's path-_

Mooch, Slowpoke and Bongo find themselves on what appeared to them as a savage island. The land supporting it was fractured, and the water around it was a vivid purple.

"Dude... this place is wrecked." said Slowpoke.

"Hmm..." Mooch sounded.

"What's up, Mooch?" Bongo asked.

"My zanpakutō... I can sense it, but it's still a ways from where we are now." Mooch replied.

"Oh yeah, your sword did fly into this place."

"When it does that, it's after some special ability that is important to have if I want to survive, and if possible, bring victory to the Titans. It helped me get rid of Subspace with the Mirror of the Zodiac, that giant golden circle emblem you guys saw when you guys got out of the place. I can't use it again for a while, so hopefully, I won't be facing some heavy force soon."

**"You should abandon that hope..."** said a nearby male voice.

"Who's there?" Slowpoke questioned, as he and his brothers were battle-ready, automatically grasping their Sacred powers. They decided not to ascend to Legendary because they would use up too much energy too fast in that state, and even more if they were to go to Ascended Legendary. They had to conserve themselves.

"An elite ruler of darkness..." he replied, as his back was shown to the three brothers. He had long white hair, and he wore a long beige coat over his white vest and black pants.

"That's not explaining enough. Identify yourself, now." Mooch demanded.

The man turned around. "It is I, Ansem! You should realize now that this realm is one of darkness, and that all three of your hearts must submit to one thing: eternal darkness."

Bongo crossed his arms. "Oh, did you tell Wrinkle that too?"

"I honestly don't know who you speak of, but he must be someone that you are after... am I correct?"

"Yes. About what you said about our hearts and darkness... yeah, not gonna happen, man." Slowpoke told him.

Ansem brought his arm in while clenching his fist. "All hearts are created from darkness!"

"Ansem, even you should know that that's not true. You're telling the wrong people about how hearts are created. We're the Bean Titans, so allow us to shed a little light through your mind... one way or another." Mooch explained.

Suddenly, a shadic figure that appeared to be a guardian appeared beside Ansem.

"By all means, try!" Ansem exclaimed, floating around the area.

"Flame Whips!" Bongo yelled, swinging his fists behind him to create long lashes of flame appear. He held one in each of his hands. Bongo swung one of the whips at Ansem.

"Guardian!" he beckoned, as his shadic apparition suddenly appeared in front of him, protecting him from the fire.

"What the hell? That thing doesn't look hurt at all, and it's on fire..." Bongo murmured.

"Maybe we just gotta hit it harder! Meteor Crush!" Slowpoke shouted, preparing to punch the guardian with earth-breaking heavy force.

His fist actually threw Ansem and his guardian through a nearby hut, but his guardian was still protected even though Ansem took a share of pain to his back.

"That thing isn't even scratched. What's with it?" Slowpoke wondered.

"They're both Heartless." Mooch claimed with certainty.

"What?" Bongo uttered.

"Think about it. Your fire and Slowpoke's earth-based fist didn't do so much as to make his guardian even flinch. Since it's a Heartless, it must be weak to light."

"So we can hit it with a Kamehameha or I can slow it down with my optic laser." Slowpoke figured, thinking through the situation.

"It won't be that easy. We're trying to get to Ansem too, and believe it or not, he's a Heartless too. Of course he doesn't look like it, but his guardian wouldn't be protecting him if he wasn't, as he said before, an elite ruler of darkness. If we're going to take them out, we'll have to use one big Kamehameha... and unfortunately, I'm the only one with the Super Kamehameha."

"No problem... all banana-for-brains and I have to do is hold Ansem down before you fire it."

"Too bad you won't get to!" called a familiar voice, flying in from a distance.

"That's... Wrinkle!" Bongo acclaimed.

"In the flesh." he responded, appearing next to Ansem, whose guardian shielded him from the bulldog.

"No... stand down, my guardian. He seems promising to me." Ansem ordered.

Wrinkle scanned Ansem and saw the Heartless emblem on his chest. "You must be Ansem." Wrinkle said.

"Yes I am. Do I need to enlighten you about the darkness?"

"I already have an idea, thank you. However, unlike these three rebels, I am in favor of your views."

Ansem's guardian disappeared when it sensed that Ansem was willing to listen to Wrinkle. "That's good to hear. So, have you come here for a reason?"

"One that is beneficial for the both of us. Just follow me, and ignore these three." Wrinkle told him.

Wrinkle and Ansem flew towards the hidden cove in the interior of the island.

"You're not getting away, Wrinkle! Dragon Fang Eruption!" shouted Bongo, unleashing his signature fire blast where it would interrupt their path. Strange enough, Wrinkle and Ansem kept moving...

"Bowser... they're yours." Wrinkle murmured, just before he and Ansem hit the fire. Around the same time, the Koopa King suddenly warped in front of the fire blast and consumed it whole, while Wrinkle and Ansem escaped.

"Oh crap..." Bongo said under his breath, after seeing what the Acolyte had done.

Bowser had steam coming out of his nose. "Here... let me return the favor!" Bowser growled, shooting the fire back at the three Titans with double force in a massive fireball that moved fast.

"DEFENSES! NOW!" Mooch quickly warned his trio, assuming his Iron Defense.

"Armor of the Mantle...!" Slowpoke exclaimed with an inflection at the end, hoping not to suffer too much pain from the fire.

"Helio Shield!" Bongo shouted, calling his perfect barrier for any fire-based move.

The scene quickly changed so that the island was in bird's-eye view. An explosion of flames erupted all over the island, and a ring of fire stood on the outer rim of it. The scene fades to black, for now.

* * *

_-Trio Bravo's path-_

"Huh? Where are we now?" Christina questioned.

She, Megan and Sly found themselves on a region where a massive mountain was set in the middle. The other half of the mountain was shielded by a heavy ring of clouds.

"That mountain... it looks familiar." Megan wondered.

"Mt. Olympus." Sly guessed.

"Isn't that like... Ancient Greece?" said Christina.

"Isn't **that **lava?" Megan asked, pointing at the mountain, which now had magma oozing down from it.

"The Magma Titan. We're in trouble. The Titans are loose, and I'm not talking about us." Sly proclaimed.

"Well, at least one of them are out of the way." Christina said optimistically.

Megan turned around. "Um... you might've spoken too soon."

Before Sly and Christina looked back, the other three Titans had fallen in defeat from the battle on Mt. Olympus. Once they looked where Megan was looking, they realized that there was one more Titan.

"WHERE'S HERCULES?" the Cyclops yelled towards Trio Bravo. He looked a bit bruised after being previously beaten by a weakened hero.

"He's probably busy right now. Besides, you need a **MAJOR** breath mint." Christina replied.

"NO ONE TALKS TO ME LIKE THAT! HAAAA!" the cyclops outbursted, preparing to smash the three with both of his fists at once. He had his fists above his head, before he threw them down.

Without a word, Trio Bravo used Flash Step to escape the Cyclops's quaking force. _(Music starts: "Airship Fortress" — as heard from Super Smash Bros. Brawl.)_

"That's one way to get him angry..." Megan murmured.

"Sorry." Christina said.

"He's not gonna leave us alone. We'll have to make him like all his fellow Titans—defeated." Sly assumed.

"Well, with all of that fat on him, how are we even gonna move him?" Christina wondered.

"We'll find a way." Sly responded. "Multi-Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

2,000 Slys appeared and ran in to get as close to the Titan as possible.

Before she could follow her brother, Christina was barred by Megan.

"How many of those "stink" bombs can you throw at him?" the squirrel asked.

"Countless."

"We need to weaken his defense, and one bomb isn't gonna do the job."

"I see what you mean." Christina said, beginning to conjure as many as 200 Expose Bombs, which weaken any defenses that some force may have.

Megan activated her Sharingan to open her Blue Mage-like ability to choose from a variety of jutsus. She thought about blowing the Cyclops away after the bombs were thrown. Some of the Sly clones came to take the bombs and toss them at every part of the Titan's body.

"AAH! NOW I REALLY STINK." said the Cyclops.

"I have your remedy right here... your **permanent** remedy. Wind Scythe Jutsu!" Megan shouted, releasing a heavy razor gust of air that cut away at the Cyclops violently while sending him flying into the cosmos.

"Jeez..." Christina said, looking at the sky.

"I know... he flew far." Sly claimed.

"Yeah... but I didn't know my stink bombs were that strong."

"Let's not make jokes about this now." Megan insisted.

Unexpectedly, the three Bean Titans felt an instant bend in the air and looked toward the base of Mt. Olympus. A portal was there now, but it was guarded by dark blue Heartless with a sort of helm on their heads, called Knights.

"They're another kind of Heartless, aren't they?" Christina complained, dropping her arms down and swinging them slightly.

Megan did not say a word. She kept her Sharingan eyes on to look through her skills. The only things that would work are her Shadow Possession techniques; she had to find some time to study light-based skills.

"Christina." Sly called, setting her upright by her shoulder. "I made that pact earlier for a reason. We'll make it out of this, I promise. Don't lose hope."

Christina smiled a little. "Okay... but the only light attack I have is my strongest move."

"Which is why I stocked a lot of Ethers for us. We won't run out of energy."

"Let's do this then!" Megan exclaimed, charging into the army of Knights with two kunai knives in hand.

"Clear a path." Sly told his sister, before following Megan.

"All right." she said, powering to Legendary and focusing a lot of energy through to her hands. "Solarbeam!" she shouted, taking out over half of the Knights with an oversized blast of light.

"Whoa... her Solarbeam was never that big. And the sun isn't even out." Megan murmured, nearly being hit by it.

"Don't stop moving! We're cutting through!" Sly shouted, wielding two Rasengans and beginning to plow through the Knights to the portal behind them. These spheres of chakra were different, however, in that they did not wither away or outburst when Sly struck a target. They both stayed intact. Sly called them **Aces**.

"In that case..." Megan began, pulling out her windmill shuriken, "let's make this quick. Hyper Dash." she finished, emulating Hippie's speed and using it to burst forward and cut through every remaining Knight like a swift razor blade.

Christina used Flash Step to reach Sly, who was facing the portal. Megan soon joined them.

"Wait, how aren't they coming back to life like the little ones did?" Christina asked.

"Any element, except for light, wouldn't work on these Heartless. No one said that they were immune to purebred weapons." Megan said.

Both girls stopped talking when they sensed Sly's energy increase. They looked and saw that his Kyuubi chakra was manifesting (no tails yet).

"I sense an Acolyte's presence through this wormhole, and it's getting bigger. Trio Alpha is there too—I sense Mooch's energy clearly." Sly told them.

"Let's help them!" Christina said, jumping in first, followed by Megan, then Sly.

* * *

_-Trio Charlie's path-_

The female trio of the New 12 found themselves floating under a night sky, with an indigo mountain in their sights.

"Why do I have the feeling something bad is about to happen?" Ewey wondered.

"This is Bald Mountain." Hoppity identified.

"Is that a bad thing?" Lucy asked.

"In our case, yes."

_(Music starts: "Night on Bald Mountain" — as heard from Fantasia.)_

Once Hoppity recognized the mountain that was in sight, the ground below them started to tremble even though they were not physically standing on it. At the same time, a gigantic dark devil, known as Chernabog, emerged from the peak of the mountain, opening it at the top.

"Oh... crap." Ewey uttered, a bit shocked at the sight of the demon.

Chernabog released a fire blast at the three Titans.

"Look out!" Lucy exclaimed.

**_"Pyrus Denius!"_** Hoppity chanted, deliberately using her wizardry to create a fire-repellant shield to protect her team.

"We're lucky that you're on our team, Hop." Ewey said with relief.

"I know, but don't get too comfortable yet. The three of us are protected from any fire attack for five minutes, so we gotta take that thing down before time's up."

"Piece of cake." Lucy claimed.

"Not really..." Hoppity interjected. "We are the best team against darkness, but at the same time, all of those Heartless are drawn to us."

"We're floating in midair... how can they attack us?" Ewey interrogated.

After she said that, spherical Heartless with two horns and short curled tails (Darkballs) popped in all over the place.

"If** they're** floating in midair." Lucy answered.

"We cut through." Hoppity declared, taking the initiative by using her Super Psywave (her best blast) right from the start. It cleared the way of any Darkball in the line of the blast, but it diminished in strength by the time it reached Chernabog. She flew through the path she opened.

"Half and Half?" Lucy suggested to Ewey, asking if they would each take on a half of the remaining Darkball army.

"That could work... but I have a better idea." Ewey responded, summoning her Heavenbow again.

"No, Ewey!" Lucy cried, remembering what Bonnie said about how the Heartless are especially drawn to the Heavenbow.

The Darkballs immediately swarmed all over the lamb. Lucy began to come for her aid by executing a few of the outside Heartless with her Psi-Katana. She soon saw the Heavenbow go back to the atmosphere; Ewey must've either sent it back or she was "consumed" by the Darkballs.

"Angel Mode!" Ewey shouted, immediately bursting out of the crowd of Darkballs and emitting a bright light around her body, which was eliminating any source of darkness around her (i.e. the Heartless).

"Ewey?" Lucy murmured, while relieved to see that she was okay.

"As long as I'm in Angel Mode, they can be drawn to me all they like... they're only wasting their own time." she said. She turned to Chernabog and used Flash Step to appear next to Hoppity, who was not doing too well against the foe.

"Ewey? Shouldn't you save you save your power?" Hoppity asked her.

"No need. I'm about to run out of Ascended time anyways, so I'd rather finish him now."

Chernabog began to raise his arms up, to unleash a massive uprising of fire.

"Stun Spark." Ewey mentioned, snapping her fingers at the foe, instantly paralyzing it. She summoned her Heavenbow back again, to settle things with Heaven's Sacred Arrow. Ewey fired it right through Chernabog's head, causing him to burn away in a massive indigo flame. The opening he created in the mountain was left behind, which led to the trio's new path.

"That's it?" Lucy questioned, smoke-warping next to the other two girls.

Ewey powered down automatically, due to the time limit she mentioned. "Not quite."

Suddenly, Darkballs appeared and stormed the entire area again, flying closer and closer to the three female Bean Titans.

"Your turn, Lucy. Get us out of here!" Hoppity said.

"To where?"

"ANYWHERE BUT HERE!" shouted Ewey, seeing the Darkballs planning to attack all at once.

"All right, but I can only use this sparingly." Lucy began to say.

"Just do it!" Ewey exclaimed.

"**Telepulse**!" Lucy finally said, warping her team to a random, but reasonable location, while at the same time, releasing a crimson psionic pulse upon teleportation. She was right to say that she could only use it sparingly, in that it takes up a lot of energy and because it was used to greatly damage an army of foes, hence, every Darkball in the area.

* * *

_-Trio Delta's path-_

Ears, Felix and Bonnie are warped into a cave dwelling with a bright green floor. One end of the corridor shines with an opening of light on it, while the other end has an emblem shaped like a keyhole on it.

"This path looks easy enough." Felix said.

"Is that our goal?" Ears asked, pointing at the keyhole.

Felix touched five places around it, setting up his Voltage Blast Charge. "Right after I bust it open, it will be."

"Hit the deck..." Bonnie uttered, as Felix channeled his electricity in a circular bodily motion with arm movements.

"HAH!" Felix yelled, emitting an intense lightning bolt through two of his fingers at the keyhole. He automatically assumed that he opened a new path, so he went into the smoke... only to run into something solid. "Hey... what?"

"What is it, Fee-lee?" Bonnie asked, as the smoke cleared away.

"I hit something."

Ears was shocked. _"That wall is still there?" _he thought, seeing the emblem without a scratch.

"What the..." Felix started to say, before he, Ears and Bonnie felt the ground shake once.

They looked behind them and saw another Behemoth.

"Again?" Felix murmured.

"I'll handle this." Bonnie said, as the Heartless beast charged for the trio.

"With what? None of us have light moves." Ears pointed out.

"Wrong. Here's one of mine..." Bonnie replied, spreading her hands wide in front of her face. "Solar Flare!"

A blinding light flashed before everyone's eyes, and eliminated the Behemoth on the spot.

"Whoa..." was what Ears could only say. It only took flickers of light to take down a giant.

"Check out the sign again." Felix alerted the team, as a fraction of the wall emblem disappeared.

"Do we have to fight more Heartless to open it completely?" Ears wondered.

"That would be a yes..." Bonnie said, looking at an entire swarm of Heartless—consisting of Neoshadows and Darkballs.

"We're boned." Ears assumed.

The Heartless came closer and closer until they suddenly stopped and then turned around as if they had a sense of smell, which they don't. They turned to a great source of light—Ewey's Heavenbow. One Darkball was shot and killed by one of her light arrows.

"Don't like arrows? Try knives!" Lucy shouted, releasing countless psionic knives to take down many of the Heartless in the corridor. This caused most of the wall emblem to disappear.

"Keep your skin on, Ears." Hoppity told him.

"Looks like they're okay." Felix said.

"Shard of Lightning!" Ears said, quickly grabbing Felix and Bonnie to move them away from a demon-like Heartless with a blue sword—an Invisible.

"Thanks, Ears. Okay... he's new." Bonnie said, never seeing that Heartless before.

The Invisible threw down its sword and disappeared.

"Where is it?" Ewey wondered.

Hoppity used her mind to determine what was going to happen next. "Guys, if purple flames surround you, get out of the circle they create."

Felix was the one who was surrounded by the very flames. Before they closed in on him, he dodged the Invisible by Flash Step.

"Ewey—use Holy on the sword... it's going back to get it." Hoppity perceived.

"I'm on it! Holy!"

It was just as Hoppity said. The Heartless reappeared to grab its sword, but before it could move from that spot, Ewey's light blast executed it. The final part of the "keyhole" opened; a new path was set for Trios Charlie and Delta. The coast was clear now, so the six of them went in and wound up in a safe zone, where another portal appeared to them.

"That's an island. The monkey boys are there! And they're in trouble..." Hoppity saw.

"What kind of trouble?" Bonnie asked.

"Acolyte trouble."

"What're we waitin' on? Come on!" Felix said, jumping in first.

The rest followed immediately.

**/-/**

An Acolyte battle, next.


	6. Taming the Beast

**AN: References used: Teen Titans, Marvel/X-Men, Kingdom Hearts (our focus), Bleach, Final Fantasy (I: Dawn of Souls, VII, X, XII, and XIII), Call of Duty, Naruto, Pokémon, Nintendo, 300, Dragonball Z, Johnny Test, Fantasia, and Hercules. In this chapter: Tales of the Abyss.**

Chapter 6 — Taming the Beast

Bowser was pushing the limits of the three brothers. He wore Slowpoke down to the point where he did not have enough energy to get up. Bongo's left arm was scarred by one of Bowser's fierce claw strikes, leaving long open wounds down it. Mooch could barely keep up with the Acolyte, let alone protect himself; Bowser was relentless.

"Any last words?" Bowser asked Mooch, standing over him while preparing to fire a Fire Blast in his face.

"...Look alive." Mooch struggled to say, smirking.

"For what?"

"For me." spoke the voice of Felix, who was directly behind Bowser with a Chidori charged in his hand.

The great koopa turned around only to be inflicted with the ball of surging electricity, which sent him flying through a nearby cliff. While he was on the ground, the rest of the New 12 appeared on the scene to aid Trio Alpha.

"Thanks, Hoppity." Mooch said, for it was her that sent him a telepathic message saying that the rest of the team was on the way.

After Mooch got up, the healers of the team dispersed. Ewey immediately casted Regen on the three for gradual healing, Bonnie used Soten Kisshun to restore Bongo's arm, and Megan used her Medical Jutsu to bring Slowpoke back to full strength.

"We probably should've snagged a few Senzu Beans..." Christina figured.

The group suddenly felt Bowser's power rage.

"Yeah, that's never good." Ears uttered, turning to where Bowser was thrown.

Bowser bursted out of the cliff and stood in front of his opposition, sneering angrily.

"I'm gonna reduce you... to ashes!" Bowser growled.

"If you're gonna fire a Cero, don't waste your time... we've seen plenty of those around before." Sly said, still in his one-tailed state.

Bowser gave a short chuckle. "Foolish, foolish Bean Titans. You automatically think of me as any other Acolyte—as if we have the same sort of abilities at our disposal. Maybe you should think twice. I don't fire Ceros... I TRANSFORM!" he finished saying, just before his body began to slowly expand and morph into a far more dangerous vessel. He grew by at least three times his normal size. The spikes on his shell grew longer, and the shell itself became more rigid. Also, an extra set of spikes appeared on his short tail. Bowser's skin darkened, and his horns were enlarged. To be frank, it was quite a transformation, even by the sharp increase in his power.

_(Music begins: "The Deep End" — Kingdom Hearts)_

"I thought he was strong before..." Bongo murmured.

"Before you all die, make sure you know this form of mine... Giga Bowser." he announced, as he thrusted his fist at the ground the New 12 stood on.

Without any second guess, the heroes avoided the attack and dispersed in different directions.

"I know he's strong and all, but he's still oversized. It should take a lot of effort on his part to move as quick as we can..." Bonnie assumed, analyzing things first-hand.

"**OH REALLY?"** Giga Bowser grumbled, as his voice was heard behind Bonnie's position.

Bonnie winced. _"Wh-what...? I didn't even sense him moving..."_

She was hit directly by a fireball that quickly launched from his mouth, and she was sent flying away from the island. Felix retrieved her and let her rest on the far side of the island, seeing as she was half-conscious after the hit.

Ewey warped to him. "I'll take care of her, Felix."

The cougar did not say a word; he only had his head down and his eyes closed. Ewey assumed that Felix was slowly becoming more and more vengeful, now that Bonnie was rendered unable.

Hoppity tried hitting Giga Bowser with her Super Psywave, but had it deflected by his bare hand. His other hand was used for another one of those energy slashes that cuts into flesh. Hoppity barely avoided it completely, and Slowpoke took Giga Bowser's immediate attention afterwards by hitting him with a Meteor Crush fist.

_"Hoppity."_ Felix called, trying to contact her mentally.

_"Yeah?"_

_"There's no way any of us are gonna beat him on land. I can end this really quick if you guys can get him into the water."_

_"Conductivity, huh?" _she assumed.

_"Yeah. I already sent a static charge to run all over his shell through the Chidori I hit him with earlier. But what I'm about to hit him with is far more dangerous than my Voltage Blast Charge... so when I start chanting, get out of the way."_

Hoppity understood and mentally informed the rest of the team about Felix's plan.

"All right then. Titans, GO!" Mooch shouted, now that an actual course of action was in play now.

Slowpoke stayed back, pivoting his right fist. "Ouch." he uttered.

"What's up?" Christina asked.

"My Meteor Crush barely moved him at all. So how can anyone other than me move him? He's too heavy, and he moves quick..."

"Maybe, you just gotta hit him with something heavier." Lucy said.

"What do you mean?" the sloth asked her.

"Don't you get it? It's just Tactics 101, but in your case. You're in a predicament of power versus speed. Those who excel with their speed, like Felix and Bonnie, can easily get around even the strongest of enemies—that's what makes them useful for any team. It might not sound valid to you at all when I say this, but based on what I just said about people with speed to their advantage, it **doesn't **leave those with brute force and less speed at a loss."

"What?" uttered Slowpoke, shocked to hear this reality, as he always believed that true speed always triumphed over heavy impact.

"To keep it short and sweet, the only way you're gonna be able to overcome any type of speed—of which you can see, of course—is by completely ignoring it and being confident enough in your mind, body and spirit to be the deciding force in battle. If you can do that, you can very much dictate any speed... then you'll be immovable." Lucy finished, smoke-porting back into the fight, following Christina.

Slowpoke thought about what Lucy said and took it to heart. Acting on his newfound confidence, Slowpoke gained newfound power—his Ascended Legendary level, Adonis Mode. His appearance was different in the change of his torso. Every muscle on his upper body and arms expanded and then took a heavily defined shape (over-ripped), and he wore a tight-fitting, shiny black vest. From that perspective alone, it was obvious that he was much stronger physically than before.

_(Music change: "Storm Center" — Bleach.)_

His strength intrigued Giga Bowser, after he smacked Sly down to the island.

"Oh... what's this? You want to be a hero now, do you?" he inquired, quickly dashing up to strike the sloth with a heavy fist via Sonido.

Slowpoke, without hesitation, raised his hand up as if he were telling someone to stop. When the Acolyte's fist made contact with Slowpoke's open hand, two massive walls of wind bursted out to the sides of the two fighters. However, Slowpoke did not move an inch from the impact. He did what seemed to be impossible in this battle—he made himself immovable.

_"What the hell? Impossible..."_ Giga Bowser thought, extremely shocked that his attack didn't even phase the Bean Titan in the least.

Slowpoke suddenly exhibited a heavy red aura with his power. "Correction... I AM a hero." he retorted.

Hoppity predicted Slowpoke's next action—it was time now. _"Felix! Start doing your thing!"_ she prompted him.

Slowpoke then kicked the Acolyte into the air, and then followed with another kick, sending him over the nearby body of water. Giga Bowser recovered in the air and fired a giant fireball as Slowpoke was getting very close to him. The Koopa King and the other New 12 members only saw a great explosion of flame occur in the air. Giga Bowser presumed that Slowpoke was done.

"Ha! Hero my ass! No one survives my Super Fireball, and it's even worse at close range!" he boasted openly.

"Oh really?" spoke Slowpoke's voice, which sent a shock through Giga Bowser's mind, along with those of his fellow Bean Titans. "Then why am I not even singed from it?"

The Acolyte growled. "THAT'S IMPOSSIBLE! HOW CAN A WEAKLING LIKE YOU BE ABLE TO—!"

Slowpoke interrupted him with a Meteor Break fist (level 1) to his gut, silencing him.

"Shut up, right now. Just now, you sounded just like my brother before he made the New 12 with me. You're claiming something that isn't necessary to even go through your mind. First off, I just survived your "unstoppable" fireball without so much as a scratch because of my Armor of the **Core**, not the Mantle. Without lowering any bit of my speed at all, it grants me invincibility for 30 seconds. But that's not the point. Calling me a weakling is just a retarded blurb of what's actually real. To make my point, I've said it to my brother before and I'll say it again, now that it applies to you: your will is weaker than mine—that's why you'll never be stronger or even better than me."

Slowpoke finished speaking and hit Giga Bowser's head uppercut-style with a Meteor Crush fist (level 2), which was enough to stun his whole body and knock him up so that he was floating horizontally in the air. Seeing his bare side up, Slowpoke used Flash Step to float beside it, while powering a massive load of energy into his fist.

"I won't be ending it for you, but the result of this fight is the same. You're finished! Meteor... SHATTER (level 3)! he shouted, striking the Acolyte's torso with tremendous force, causing him to zoom to the shallow (to Giga Bowser) waters at a breath-taking speed. On contact with the ground, a great tremor in the earth occured while a half-mile wide crater was made under the Acolyte's back.

"Finish it, Felix." Mooch said.

_"I thought I wouldn't have to do this, but since you hurt Bonnie that bad... you deserve it." _Felix thought, walking to the cliff while greatly increasing his power, almost to the point where he ascended to his Wildfang Mode. **_"I, who stand in the full light of the heavens, command thee, who opens the gates of hell. Come forth, divine lightning..._****" **As he spoke, a storm began to rage in the sky and long circular glyphs hovered horizontally over the overgrown Koopa King. **_"INDIGNATION!"_** Felix finished, commanding a massive shower of lightning to strike Giga Bowser at every possible location in and around him. And since the lightning hit the water also, he took even more punishment. This force alone took what was left of the Acolyte, and did what he himself claimed he was going to do to the New 12 before he transformed—reduced him to ashes.

"Good gravy, Felix! I know he was our enemy and all, but what made you do that to him? How powerful was that lightning?" Bongo freaked.

"He deserved it. I wanted you guys to get away from Bowser because I know for certain that none of you would've survived the lightning."

"How do you know that?" Mooch asked.

"I tested my Indignation technique in the Danger Room, way early in the morning. I imagined how Hoppity casted her Wizard spells and came up with my own chant, using my own power. Once I used it that time, I went back up to check the stats from it. To answer your question, Bongo: anyone who doesn't have a power source or spiritual pressure detected at 15,000 BEANs would suffer the same fate as Bowser did—slow, painful disintegration."

"Oh wow..." Ewey murmured.

Bonnie began to stand herself up.

"You okay, Bonnie?" Lucy asked, noticing a light blush on Bonnie's cheeks.

"Yeah, I'm okay." she responded, looking off.

Hoppity winced.

"What is it?" Ears asked.

"For some reason, I have a clear vision of what's going on in our world. Apparently, those small Heartless know that our Home Base is our biggest resource, so they're all surrounding Galveston to get closer to our base." she explained.

"That's not good..." Sly mentioned.

"Wait... Fleece is drawing them all to her with her Angel Mode, like you're doing here, Ewey. And the Legendary 12 are keeping them from moving off shore towards home! Looks like they figured out the Heartless' elemental weakness... but they're still multiplying like mad. How is that... wait! The sun!"

"What's the problem?" asked Christina.

"It's slowly being eclipsed by that orb we all jumped into."

"We gotta stop Wrinkle now—we have no time to lose." Mooch said.

"Why's that? Can't the Legendary 12 figure it out on their end?" Ears interrogated.

"It's not just them I'm worried about. We were given the order to stop Wrinkle at all costs. If we stray from it now, we'd be talked down on about our leadership issues, and we don't want that, right Sly?"

"Exactly." Sly responded, with a smile.

"Wrinkle and Ansem went into that hidden cave. New 12, remember what we vowed before we split up earlier. We do the impossible. Titans, GO!"

The twelve heroes dashed into the cave in which their adversaries took their leave.

**/-/**


	7. Restoration

**AN: References used: Teen Titans, Marvel/X-Men, Kingdom Hearts (our focus), Bleach, Final Fantasy (I: Dawn of Souls, VII, X, XII, and XIII), Call of Duty, Naruto, Pokémon, Nintendo, 300, Dragonball Z, Johnny Test, Fantasia, Hercules and Tales of the Abyss. In this chapter: nothing new.**

**Just to clarify or remind you, Danielle ages differently from the rest of the Bean Titans. For her, 1 year = 3 years.**

Chapter 7 — Restoration

As Hoppity visualized, the Legendary 12 were indeed fightning the Heartless on one part of the Galveston beach. Fleece was constantly sustaining her Angel Mode to lure them in, while the rest of the team fought them off. But something did not feel right to them.

"Um, it's good that we're bringing them all to one spot and all... but where's the end in this madness? They just keep on coming!" Canyon stated.

"Good question... too bad I don't have an answer. I'm just surprised that Fleece can keep up her Angel Mode for so long." Mystic responded.

"I'm using Synergy—energy from the open air—to keep myself like this." Fleece told the group.

"Okay, that explains that. So what about the never-ending Heartless?" Hippity inquired.

Dotty was being conspicuously quiet, staring directly at the dark sphere that the New 12 entered.

"Um, Dotty? Now isn't the time to be missing your daughter..." Canyon advised her.

"That's not what I'm thinking about; I'm sure she'll be fine though. My guess is that it seems like that dark sphere is giving these Heartless unlimited power, and thus, they could be multiplying at every split-second as we speak." Dotty theorized.

"Whatever she says, she must be right about it." Mac acclaimed, while firing a barrage of his Fusion (light) Blasts.

Suddenly, there an audible sonic boom in the air, and strange enough, the Legendary 12 sensed multiple power sources heading their way during that short moment.

"Whoa... did anyone else feel that?" Spunky asked.

"Feel what?" Derby asked, appearing right under the Legendary 12's wits, with Danielle (age "3"— 9 in normal years of age).

"Derby... Danielle? How'd you get here—_without us being able to sense you again?"_ Mac asked, remembering that he was shocked the last time he and Derby were teamed up, against Sceptilius. Mac couldn't detect Derby when he invited himself into the fight, and the young horse had a lot of spunk in his voice.

"Not important. Let's worry about taking these freaks down a peg." Derby responded.

"I suppose that'd be for the best at this point. Do you have something in mind?" Sweet asked.

"OOH! Derby, can I use that move I learned?" Danielle volunteered, with cheer and ambition in her voice.

"All right, but just remember when to stop waving your fingers."

"Yay!" Danielle exclaimed, floating into the air to prepare her technique.

The Legendary 12 were astonished to see Danielle's development; she just started training a couple of weeks ago, and now she's floating on air like a Soul Reaper. As they watched her, the next thing Danielle did was wave both of her index fingers from side to side repeatedly. It was called the Metronome. Strange enough, the Shadows paid attention to her and strayed away from Fleece.

"What is she doing, taunting them?" Floppity wondered.

"No... she's generating power into her hands." Aurora sensed, before gasping sharply. "And a heavy load of it!"

Derby knew what was coming, so he took precautions. "It would be best if we had a Psyshield around us..." he hinted the Legendary 12, who huddled in around Mystic, who set up the super-stable psychic shield around the group.

Danielle stopped waving her fingers and raised them up in the air, causing an unpredictable event to occur. An **Ultima **spell, ten times stronger than Floppity could ever muster, violently exploded in a city-wide area, eliminating any source of darkness within it (i.e., the Heartless). At the same time, the dark sphere above the Titans began to diminish at a very slow rate. When the chaotic spell seemed to have setted down, Mystic released the barrier, looking just as shocked as the rest of her fellow Titans.

"Derby... do you have any idea what Danielle's power level is?" Kuku wondered.

Derby turned back and bucked his head slightly with a smug look. "You don't wanna know." he stated.

"Yeah, we do." Fancy said.

Derby sighed. "Fine. It's not by a lot... but it's still over 9,000."

"WHAT? 9,000? You've gotta be kidding me! She's just a beginner!" Canyon freaked.

"Spunky, are you okay?" Dotty asked her husband, whose eyes were bulged.

"I'm just trying to figure out if it's a good or bad thing being a grandfather now."

Fleece powered off of Angel Mode. "That's right, you are Danielle's grandparents." she recalled.

"Ha ha. Y'all are old." Derby joked.

"Don't push it, short stuff." Spunky retorted.

"Something's still not right." Mystic claimed, a bit skeptical about something.

"What?" Sweet interrogated.

"For that short instant, before Derby and Danielle were here, I thought I sensed six other sources, but they moved too fast for me to identify them. It was almost as if they literally moved at the speed of light."

Derby smiled. "You could say that."

"What do you mean?"

"Those six "lights"... I live with them."

Sweet was startled. "Wait! Then that means—"

"Oh, yeah." Derby and Danielle simultaneously uttered.

**/-/**

CLIFFHANGER! We'll get back to this shortly.


	8. A Clean Escape

**AN: References used: Teen Titans, Marvel/X-Men, Kingdom Hearts (our focus), Bleach, Final Fantasy (I: Dawn of Souls, VII, X, XII, and XIII), Call of Duty, Naruto, Pokémon, Nintendo, 300, Dragonball Z, Johnny Test, Fantasia, Hercules and Tales of the Abyss. In this chapter: Yu-Gi-Oh.**

Chapter 8 — A Clean Escape

Upon the New 12's entry into to the secret cave, they immediately found themselves in another realm, almost completely of darkness.

"Dude... where are we, and what are we standing on?"

Lucy took a look with her Byakugan. "There's a gigantic, but very faintly indigo-colored platform we are standing on. And, just as far as I can see, there's this great white door at the edge of this place."

"It has to be our way out." Sly assumed.

Hoppity gasped, sensing multiple heavy power sources nearby. "Getting there isn't gonna be easy..." she said, pointing upward.

Wrinkle descended down towards the Titans, accompanied by the other two Acolytes Christina was bullied by, Ganondorf and Mewtwo. Wrinkle had an odd black aura around him.

"Correct you are." Wrinkle affirmed.

"Where's Ansem?" Felix asked.

"Why, he's here... within me."

"That explains your power and aura. But why are these two with you?" Megan interrogated, crossing her arms.

"Why else? Don't you know your enemies when you see them in plain sight?"

"Trust me, we know our foes. Didn't you say you were "just following orders" earlier, how this wasn't your plan to begin with?" Mooch tested the canine nemesis.

Wrinkle chuckled. "Of course, you guys don't listen very closely. I said I was following orders, **at the moment**. Until all the pieces were in place, my own plan wouldn't begin. This is now the case—the cooperation of Ansem, assisting Acolytes, and that very door in the distance... Kingdom Hearts. With its limitless capabilities, Kingdom Hearts shall make me truly immortal, with unstoppable power beyond anyone's wildest imagination!"

The New 12 were shocked to hear his plan, and immediately knew that they could not let that happen, now knowing that Wrinkle had "incomplete immortality"—a mutual contract with the Acoyltes.

"Before we thrash on you, we want to know... who plans this stuff out? The Titans X massacre, the espers, Subspace, everything!" Slowpoke shouted.

"Slade." Ganondorf answered.

"Our leader. But it's strange... he's been quiet lately. Ever since this plan began, he hasn't given any other order." Mewtwo added.

"Which means, matters are in our hands now." Wrinkle proclaimed.

"Looks like you guys need a reality check." Ewey said, powering up to Legendary along with the rest of the New 12.

"Right. Titans, go!" Mooch announced, using Flash Step to try and ambush Wrinkle with one of his arms, after morphing it into a blade.

"You just don't get it." Wrinkle said, ten yards away from Mooch, who realized that he hit a mirage. "With Ansem in me, I control the Heartless!"

Suddenly, a great horde of Heartless appeared all around the area (consisting of all breeds from the first Kingdom Hearts game).

"We... are... boned." Bongo presumed, fearing the imminent doom upon he and his team. They were in the presence of countless Heartless, two Acolytes, and Wrinkle himself.

The heroes began to question their survival. Is this where their destiny ends?

"WRONG!" shouted a random voice from behind the New 12.

Everyone in the fight turned to the sound of the voice, but only got blinded by an intense light that grew in intensity. When the light subsided, just about every Heartless disappeared.

"What trickery is this? Ewey? Hoppity? Lucy?" Wrinkle demanded to know.

"No... us." said the same voice, which was realized to be that of Durango's. The mustang was accompanied by the rest of Team Z—Mina, Tina, Thunderbolt, Dep and Fortress.

"Team Z! How'd you guys get in this place?" Ears asked.

"The Oracle Twins (Mina and Tina) sensed that you guys were in trouble, so we came to help, on one condition... you let us handle Ganondorf and Mewtwo." Thunderbolt said.

Without warning, Ganondorf warped to Durango via Sonido and used his Warlock Punch. However, it was blocked by Durango's bare left hand, as if it was nothing. The New 12 were amazed that Durango could stop such a powerful move with ease.

"What makes you think that singling us out will make things easier, huh?" Ganondorf asked.

"We don't think that'll happen... we KNOW that'll happen." Durango responded, looking at the Acolyte while exhibiting most of his new power. It rose above Ganondorf's, which freaked a few people out.

"Dude... we're gonna have to make a new scouter for these power levels." Slowpoke uttered.

"We'll accept your condition. That leaves us to Wrinkle." Mooch said.

"He's getting away!" Christina alerted the group, seeing the foe run towards Kingdom Hearts.

"Not for long he isn't!" Felix shouted, taking the initiative and chasing after Wrinkle by Lightning Dash.

"New 12, support Felix. If any more Heartless show up, you know what to do." Mooch commanded, before he took his move. For some reason, however, he could not move from the spot he stood on.

Megan was the only one that noticed this. "Mooch, what's wrong?" she asked.

"I don't know. It's like I'm glued to this spot..." he replied, looking down at the ground to find the problem. The only thing he saw that was different was some silver spot of light on the ground.

"What's that?" Megan wondered.

For some strange reason, Mooch's spiritual pressure was responding to the light as he looked at it. _"What? Why is my spirit energy acting up? Wait a minute..."_ Mooch thought, beginning to remember that his zanpakutō flew into this dimension as well. He put his hand on the light, and found that his hand passed through the ground.

Megan watched as Mooch slowly pulled out his blade from underneath the nearly black ground. "Your sword... but how?" she inquired.

"I don't know. I always seem to find it when I really need it... which means the end of this madness is upon us."

_(Music starts: "Desperate Struggle" — Final Fantasy XIII.)_

/\/\/\/\/\/\

_BATTLE 1:_ Team Z vs. Ganondorf and Mewtwo.

"We've been looking for you two." Dep began the conversation.

"Why's that?" Mewtwo asked.

"It's pretty simple to answer, really. But the better question is: do you really want to know why Slade's been AWOL lately?" Fortress proposed.

"He's probably just busy planning our next step in our master plan. What else do we need to know?" Ganondorf stated.

"That he's dead." Thunderbolt announced.

"**WHAT?" **Ganondorf outbursted, attacking only to have to Warlock Punch denied again, but by Thunderbolt this time.

"Yeah, that doesn't work on me either."

"Who could've done such a thing?" Mewtwo questioned in a bit of vengeance.

"You're looking at them." Tina answered.

"No..." Ganondorf murmured, slowly backing away from the heroes.

"It's true." Mina began. "You see, the reason why we requested to fight you two was because of one reason only: you're the only two Acolytes left. You heard me right—every other member of the self-proclaimed "elusive" band of masterminds are gone."

"In the big picture, it was really a sign of revenge, for the mass murder of almost all of Titans X, almost ten years ago. I still don't know why you all did it, but you need to realize that mess with one member of a family, you mess with everyone in it too. My mom never did anything to you guys, and you still chased her, even after she left Ireland. **_*sigh*_** You can forget trying to kill us, because this madness ends now. This fight is one-sided; it's already over. And by the way, we know all about your little contract you made with Wrinkle and his syndicate. We're here to finish the job, by taking you two out!" Durango said.

"How can you sound so sure?" Mewtwo and Ganondorf both asked bluntly, charging in towards Team Z, full force. Ganondorf had transformed into his beast form while Mewtwo surrounded himself in a blue aura, both increasing their power levels.

All six heroes each extended one of their hands out towards the two charging Acolytes.

"Because we are." Durango replied.

"Psionic Blast!" shouted the six members of Team Z, each firing an overly powerful blast of light (each colored to their skin colors, with the exception of Fortress, which was shown as the color of her lavender hair). It was their mock Cero.

At that instant, both Acolytes were vanquished, on the spot. Team Z proved their point and completed their quest: to act as a separate, powerful division of the Bean Titans, and ultimately, defeat all of the Acolytes. Mission accomplished.

/\/\/\/\/\/\

_BATTLE 2:_ The New 12 vs. Wrinkle (chase battle).

Since Ewey was the main source of light in the nearly pitch black realm, the spawning Heartless were drawn towards her.

"Got you now!" Felix said, attacking Wrinkle with a Chidori.

Wrinkle laughed evilly, as his voice was heard ten yards ahead of Felix. "Too slow! Try again." Wrinkle taunted him.

"Viper Bolts!" Felix shouted in a bit of anger, firing swift bolts of lightning at Wrinkle.

Even with Felix's speed, Wrinkle kept dodging like it was nothing. Lucy watched closely with her Byakugan.

"Those are actually pretty fast... but it's still no use against me. Just give up, kid."

"Oh no, he said the "k" word." Bonnie murmured.

"DON'T CALL ME THAT!" Felix yelled, unleashing a massive Discharge (area thundershock) out of frustration.

Wrinkle (barely) dodged again. _"Whoa... how can someone that young exhibit that much sudden power? I better watch what I say."_ he thought.

"He's using the darkness around him to warp everywhere." Lucy figured out. "All he has to do is just look out to anywhere in this place, and he'll be spotless."

"All right guys. New plan. I'll handle the Heartless with my clones—the rest of you stop Wrinkle." Sly planned.

"But there's so many of them..." Christina said.

"I won't be alone. Look." he replied, pointing out to Team Z, who was quickly eliminating some of the Heartless with what they called their "beginner" light attacks. They already defeated the last two Acolytes.

"Okay, be careful."

"Believe it. Titans, GO!" Sly shouted. "Multi Shadow Clone Jutsu!"

"Ah, crap." Wrinkle muttered, looking back to see nine members of the New 12 charging for him. Even though he could manage dodging them, it would be a pain having to do it.

He first sidestepped Bongo's Flame Wheel, Ears's Tornami Twister, and Slowpoke's Tunneling Fang. Wrinkle then warped away from a pair of Chidoris, from Felix and Bonnie. Using Sonido speed, he escaped Megan's ninja projectiles, Lucy's Psi-Knives, Hoppity's Psybeam Barrage, and even Ewey's Scatterstorm (from the Heavenbow). Not one of the Bean Titans could hit him even once.

"You've gotta be kidding me!" Ewey exclaimed, watching Wrinkle continue on to the great white doors.

"Ha ha ha ha! With Ansem's power, there's no way any of you can stop me. Kingdom Hearts is close, and so is my perfect immortality! None of you stand a chance!"

"Sword of Revealing Light!" Mooch shouted so that Wrinkle could hear. _(Music shifts: "Number One" — Bleach.)_

Suddenly, a curtain of light swords dropped around Wrinkle's position, causing him to halt as long as the swords were present.

"What's this?" acclaimed Wrinkle.

"What were you saying just now?" Mooch inquired, holding his blade in his right hand. A key chain hung from the handle of the blade, holding a key of sorts.

"Damn you..."

"Much obliged." Mooch replied sarcastically. "Just so you know, my zanpakutō rarely runs off on its own, away from me, to find something it deems as "dire importance" to something ahead of time. When I find it again, the battle is already over—you can count on that."

"Grrrr... do your worst!" Wrinkle growled.

"I will, but I'm not aiming for you." Mooch said, while pointing his blade right at Wrinkle's chest.

"What?"

"Kingdom Light!" Mooch announced, causing a bright light to generate at the edge of his sword and burst forth a beam of light, which flew straight through Wrinkle's body. The outcome: the Swords of Revealing Light vanished, and Wrinkle was completely unharmed... however, his dark aura disappeared.

"What the...? Ansem? Ansem! Where are you?" Wrinkle yelled out.

"I banished him from this realm of darkness, and not just out of your body. That was all I needed to do, to prevent him from getting any more powerful and to prevent you for gaining your full immortality. It's over, Wrinkle." Mooch explained, sheathing Zen no Kyoudoutai.

"YOU DON'T UNDERSTAND! I needed to attain my immortality for a reason!"

Mooch looked back to Wrinkle, as the rest of the New 12 and Team Z accompanied him, while Kingdom Hearts opened. "And that's how you want your destiny to be? Maybe you should quiz yourself next time."

Wrinkle bowed his head.

"Hey." Sly called.

Wrinkle looked at him.

"Unless you want to spend the rest of your life in this place, I suggest you follow us out of here. We may be your enemies, but we aren't heartless." Sly told him.

"Fine." Wrinkle murmured, bursting through the light from the door first, followed by the heroes.

**/-/**

Thanks to Team Z, the Acolytes have now been silenced for good, leaving Wrinkle's Syndicate at a loss. Their lives are not safe from time.

With Wrinkle in more of a sense defeat than ever, how much of a time limit does he have until his "contract" ends? What will he do until that time comes?

There's still more to come around.


	9. Downtime

**AN: References used: Teen Titans, Marvel/X-Men, Kingdom Hearts (our focus), Bleach, Final Fantasy (I: Dawn of Souls, VII, X, XII, and XIII), Call of Duty, Naruto, Pokémon, Nintendo, 300, Dragonball Z, Johnny Test, Fantasia, Hercules, Tales of the Abyss, and Yu-Gi-Oh! In this chapter: nothing new.**

**A bit of foreshadow is used in this chapter, to clue events to come soon.**

Chapter 9 — Downtime

"TEAM Z?" exclaimed the Legendary 12, figuring out the "lights" that Derby hinted them on.

As soon as they guessed who it was, the New 12, Team Z and Wrinkle jumped out of the dark sphere, just before it completely disappeared. The environment returned to normal, except for the wrecked bridge. The entourage floated in the air.

Mystic exhaled sharply. "Glad that's over." she said with relief.

Wrinkle left the group, heading back his own way.

"Just let him go. We don't need any of his mischief right now." Sweet said.

"Right... keeping things positive, eh?" Durango figured, descending (with the rest of the group) to the Legendary 12.

"Durango! How are things?" Sweet asked.

"Never been better."

Sweet smiled. "That good, huh? What seems to be the news?"

"The Acolytes. They're all finally gone! It was nowhere near easy, but we got rid of them all, thank goodness." Tina spoke with happiness.

"Every one of them? You're kidding..." Fleece murmured.

"Well then, we're all heading back home anyway. Come in and tell us all the details." Sweet said.

* * *

Over the course of 12 hours (into next morning), Team Z told the Legendary 12 everything they figured out about the Acolytes—about their power, their plan up to this point, and about their "contracts" to Wrinkle and his followers. This impressed—and at the same time—shocked the Legendary 12. At any passing moment, any member of Wrinkle's Syndicate, including Wrinkle himself, could disappear in the unknown time limit that the Acolytes put on their lives, as the ultimate consequence for losing their "promised" immortality. Sweet thought to himself that he, or any other Bean Titan, may not ever fight Wrinkle again.

/\/\/\/\/\/\

_The next morning (9:00 AM)..._

Tracker was walking through the halls of the Facility and passed by the Danger Room to see Bonnie in it. He entered the control center.

"Hey Bon... who's in there right now?" he asked, nicely this time around.

His sister did not say a word, as she only had on a look of fear and worry on her face.

"What's with the face?" Tracker questioned, before looking inside of the Danger Room. "Good god..."

Felix was the sole Bean Titan inside of the Danger Chamber, exhibiting an intense lightning show all around the chamber in sheer anger.

"I don't know if he's actually training, but I've never seen him like this..." Bonnie murmured.

"I'm just harked by his power. What does it say... **WHAT? 11,000!"** Tracker yelled.

"What's going on?" Fetch asked, running into the control center, noticing the heavy lightning from the hallway.

"Felix's gone berserk in there!" Tracker told him.

"Well, don't let him wreck up the Chamber! Here." Fetch threw a switch that read "Immune". He set the the switch on a lightning bolt, which made the Danger Chamber negate any and all electric techniques.

Inside the chamber, Felix noticed that his lightning no longer functioned by the new negation factor in the Danger Room. He had his head down, as he prepared to exit the chamber.

"Fee-lee?" Bonnie called.

"I need to rest." he suddenly said, walking out of the control center without another word. Something was definitely wrong with Felix. He trained without frustration all the time, but something is under his skin now.

/\/\/\/\/\/\

_Meanwhile, outside the Home Base..._

Mooch meditates on the imperial front yard of the Tower, next to his zanpakutō. While his eyes were closed, his esper crest acted on its own and shined, summoning Gilgamesh (with Enkidu).

The swordsman attempted to shake Mooch's attention by attacking with one of his own swords. Mooch, with his eyes still closed, snatched his blade and blocked Gilgamesh's.

"Ah, you're very alert." Gilgamesh complimented his host.

"As I should be." Mooch replied, opening his eyes.

Gilgamesh backed up. "Your sword, it's quite powerful. However, I want to put it to the test, to see if it could possibly match my might."

_(Music begins: "Escalon" — Bleach.)_

Mooch dropped his sheath. "Your seven swords against my one sword... I'd normally say that's a challenge... but I'm game."

"Enkidu, stand down." Gilgamesh commanded. The canine walked back and sat nearby to watch.

"Have at you!" Gilgamesh shouted, before charging in fast and attacking with two of his blades.

Mooch was startled a bit, but still blocked them. He was pushed back by the force that Gilgamesh thrusted himself forward with. When Mooch recovered, Gilgamesh was already above his head, swinging one of his blades downward. Mooch countered it and then spun himself once to throw Gilgamesh off.

_"He's quick... but I have something faster."_ Mooch thought, touching his blade with his free hand and making it give off a blue glow.

"What's this?" Gilgamesh murmured.

"Divine Fury!" Mooch exclaimed, moving by Flash Step to appear behind Gilgamesh. During that sudden time jump, Mooch landed fifteen quick hits on Gilgamesh, without him ever noticing.

"...Haah. Impressive, but you can do better, right?" Gilgamesh said, spinning around like a top and veering towards Mooch with all of his blades extended.

Mooch tried defending again, but this time, his zanpakutō flew out of his hand on impact and landed on the ground fifteen yards away. _"Crap!" _Mooch internally acclaimed, running to grab his sword again, only to be stopped by his summon again, who attempted to cut a defenseless Mooch.

"I have you now!" Gilgamesh proclaimed, letting the buster sword fall.

Mooch lowered his eyebrows, just before successfully stopping the heavy sword with his morphed arms, as blades.

"Oh..." Gilgamesh uttered in surprise.

Mooch secretly knocked the buster sword away from him with his tail, making Gilgamesh separate himself.

"Close one." Mooch murmured.

"Ah. I see that your arms and tail can act as replacement blades, just in case you lose your true one. So this is what a Bean Titan can promise anyone he or she contends with... intriguing. I must say, you are a skillful swordsman yourself."

Mooch picked up his blade. "This is actually my first duel with someone with a sword. Thanks. However, there's more to me and my blade than meets the eye. You'll see more of my personal feats later, but I'll show you, face-to-face, what you're up against." Mooch said, motioning his sword. "Transcend, Zen no Kyoudoutai."

Gilgamesh watched the sword's silver diamond transformation. "Now this is truly a glorious duel. Let us see if your saber can block all seven of mine at once, including the one and only Blade of Legend!" he exclaimed, charging forward again.

"This isn't a saber... this is a zanpakutō. Soshi: Colossus Blade." Mooch announced, stopping every sword with the adamant-like form of his own. Mooch did not move an inch, either.

"GAH! But how?" Gilgamesh exclaimed, immediately backing away.

"Allow me to explain." Mooch began. "You see, Zen no Kyoudoutai is no normal sword. It is a zanpakutō—a blade that lives by alliance with its chosen master. By synching my spiritual pressure—or power, if you will—with it, Zen no Kyoudoutai allow me to unlock its hidden powers, most of which are truly astounding. Earlier, you saw my blade in its primary form. The transformation, caused by a new height in spiritual pressure, is its **_shikai_** form—the initial "release" of my sword's true power. In this stage, Zen no Kyoudoutai wields ten elemental identities of itself. I stopped your blades with its metal identity. However, that's not even the half of it. Zen no Kyoudoutai's true power is exhibited when I take it to a much further height—its **_bankai_**. It turns gold, and its power is quite immense."

Gilgamesh was awestruck, sticking all of his swords into the ground. "To be able to increase your own sword's power with a mutual bond, to stop any opposing force with one blade... you Mooch, are a truly valiant swordsman. It seems that I cannot continue fighting such a formidable opponent. You pass the test."

"Thank you." Mooch replied, sheathing his blade.

"Come, Enkidu!" Gilgamesh called, returning to the summon crest.

With another victory in hand, Mooch returns to meditation.

**I~~~**~~~I**

This ends Crisis Central, Stage Two... believe me, this is far from over.

Tune in next time, for BTA Part 12!

Feel free to tell me how I did!


End file.
